Construction and Validation of School Counselor’s Efficiency Measurement Scale

This study aimed to construct and validate a scale for assessing efficiency in school counselors. This mixed methods study followed an exploratory approach. In the qualitative section, the statistical population included all professors and specialists in the field of counseling in Iran, as well as teachers, counselors, and lower secondary school students in Ardabil province in the 2021-2022 academic year, 46 of whom were selected by purposive and snowball sampling. In the quantitative section, the statistical population included all school counselors and liaison counselors (in primary schools) of Ardabil province in the 2021-2022 academic year. In the quantitative section, two samples were used. In the first sample, 220 people were selected for exploratory factor analysis and in the second stage, 205 counselors and liaison counselors were selected through multistage cluster random sampling for confirmatory factor analysis. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data in the qualitative section and the School Counselor’s Efficiency Measurement Scale and the School Counselor’s Professional Ethics Scale were used in the quantitative section. The data were analyzed using grounded theory in the qualitative section and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in the quantitative section. Based on the results of the qualitative section of the research, moral, psychological, behavioral, and emotional characteristics were identified as the main components. The final results of the quantitative section of the research showed the goodness of fit was acceptable and approved the validity of the School Counselor’s Efficiency Measurement Scale in terms of moral, emotional, behavioral, and psychological characteristics with 31 items. Based on the findings of the present study, the School Counselor’s Efficiency Measurement Scale, for assessing this construct in Iranian samples, has sufficient reliability and validity